After following the trail for most of a day, Cedric Archer began to notice imprint overlays in the set of tracks he was following. Two people had come through here, then, thought Cedric, and they're trying to hide their numbers. This is starting to get suspicious. After being betrayed and imprisoned for weeks, he wasn't about to fall for any tricks. Having spent most of his arrows hunting deer and rabbits as he passed through Lenfald, Cedric knocked his last shaft and continued cautiously.It wasn't long before he came to the outskirts of a small town somewhere south of Stoneborough. The town seemed almost deserted - doors closed, windows shuttered, curtains drawn - and he passed no one as he crept between the houses. Maybe I'd better move out of here quickly, he thought. "This could be a trap and I'm down to my last arrow... but if it's not, there's at least one other Garhim nearby... should I hang around and try to find supplies or - " Suddenly, his thought was stopped short when he heard a pair of voices on the air coming from behind a stone barn. Ever so carefully, Cedric sidled around the barn until the source of the voices came into view. Three men stood in a small goat pasture, two advancing on the other. They were clad all in black and their hoods were drawn and in their hands they each carried a wicked-looking dagger."What more do you want from me?" the third man said. "Here's the last of my coin - take it and leave me alone!""Now why would we leave you alone?" the shorter man said, thumbing the edge of his blade menacingly. "You still owe us more.""Yeah, s'right d'ja do," laughed the taller man on the right. "You got more and ya owes it to us, we figure."Thieves... Cedric realized with anger."But I've given you everything already," the Lenfel pleaded. "We did everything you asked - why won't you leave our town in peace?""Because you still owes us a piece, we figure... How 'bout them goats? We'll take them, too.""Please, no! They're all I have left!""Well then give them over and we'll leave you alone," laughed the shorter man."But this is madness! You can't do this!""An' oo says we can't? The Good Queen says we can - you want us ta take you back wiv us to the castle so's you can explain to the Queen why she's a liar?""N-n-no, I just, I-I..."They're terrorizing the town with the Queen's sanction, thought Cedric. I have to stop this. With no further thought for his own safety, Cedric climbed the rough stone of the barn until he had a vantage point from the roof. ...one shot, he reminded himself. Make it count. He drew, aimed, and fired.Screaming, both of the thieves dropped their daggers, Cedric's arrow having grazed each of their hands before embedding itself in a tree. "GARHEIM!" Cedric yelled as he drew his boot knife and dropped from the shingled roof. The Lenfel man snatched up a fallen dagger and began slashing the air in large, untrained swings, as a farmer would thresh wheat. Hissing, the smaller man backed away and melted into the shadows between two houses, while his tall companion scrambled to escape the angry farmer. "Get inside! I'll handle this," Cedric told the man as he edged around the remaining thief. The Lenfel nodded and added a quick thanks before ducking inside the nearest house. By that time, the thief had recovered his dagger and had locked his mismatched eyes on Cedric. He knew the small boot knife he'd found was no match for the dagger hand to hand and the thought of the shorter man taking him out from behind took all desire for vengeance from his mind."I got'chu now, Archer. You and that other Garhim'll be back in the Good Queen's dungeons and I'll get rewarded, I will. A nice fat purse o' gold for me and a cold prison cell for you. 'Ow's that sound?""Lovely. HYA!" Cedric's wrist snapped forward and the stone he'd been holding pegged the thief in his left eye. At the same time, he brought his bow around in an arc and connected with the man's head with a crack. Before the thief could recover from the blow, Cedric turned and ran headlong down the road, gravel flying behind him. His heart raced, his legs burned, but still he ran.When he finally stopped to look back, the road was empty and he was alone again in the wilderness. Cedric slowed to a jog and continued down the road until it forked. A wooden sign had been thrust in the ground at the juncture; the one that pointed right said ERKSHIRE and the one that pointed left said STONEBOROUGH. He turned his feet down the left path and continued on his journey.